Businesses use promotional items to support Vancouver Olympic tie-ins

A wide range of U.S. businesses are using promotional items as tie-ins with the 2010 Olympic Games, according to a blog post published Wednesday.

This year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver will provide businesses with the opportunity for new marketing campaigns, the New York Times Media Decoder blog reported. Coca-Cola, for example, will distribute promotional items, start a new Facebook page and run television commercials to promote its VitaminWater beverages in a campaign that will heavily reference the games.

"With less than a month until the start of the Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, marketers are raising the curtain on their advertising plans for the Winter Games," the blog noted.

McDonald's will once again launch a new campaign full of Olympic tie-ins, according to the blog post. Company representatives said they plan to run commercials and use special packaging featuring U.S. Olympic athletes.

Businesses often use custom apparel, personalized pens and other promotional items to help launch new advertising campaigns and support tie-ins with prominent figures and events. The Olympics have been a particularly lucrative source of custom apparel and other promotional items in this vein.